Olympic Britain

With the Olympics now well underway, the researchers of the House of Commons Library have recently written a book entitled Olympic Britain.

The book tells the fascinating story of how the UK has changed, both socially and economically, between the two previous London Olympics of 1908 and 1948 and now.

It uses graphs and statistics to bring to life a period during which our standards of living, the type of work we do, our leisure activities and our lifestyles have changed almost beyond recognition, much like the Olympics itself.